Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Happy belated Louis Riel Day! Let's bust out some ManLinkWeek.[The Times (Canstar): Councillor oblivious of traffic changes]Hey, remember all those lessons our leaders learned from the Assiniboine Avenue saga? So many lessons! Our Mayor and Council vowed that never again would our City force significant and disruptive changes upon a major artery of neighbourhood traffic, not without first employing due diligence, and certainly not without providing the proper notice and attention to those prospectively affected by such a decision.

Area residents suddenly and unpleasantly met with redirection gridlock and chaos outside their doors? Zero consultation with area stakeholders or the public? Why, those days are behind us! Thus began a golden age of open communication, full accountability, and above all else a total commitment to proper public consultation -- because, as I'm sure we can all agree, "No one likes to be surprised".

That lasted us a whole month. Or, well, almost a month. A month ish. And then, surprise! No consultation, no input, no notice, no explanation, not even any signage; the media coverage seems to indicate that you can walk by the unheralded new median at any given time and see vehicles marooned atop it, which is almost as funny a mental image as picturing how Scott Fielding must have reacted when his constituents were first telling him about it. "They what? No, no, that doesn't sound right. They wouldn't do that without at least telling me beforeh... they what?"

Ha ha ha ha ha ha, ahhhhhhhhh. Good times! Those were good times.

[West End Dumplings: Why are AB taxpayers subsidizing Minhas Brewery?]Hey, you know what else we never learn from? Large landowners' heartfelt promises, with nothing but the best and most honest of intentions, to build and develop and invest lavishly if only, if only we can find it in our hearts to grant them permission to knock down an old building or two. One landmark demolition later, well, wouldn't you know it -- those big plans they had just weren't in the cards after all, but they do happen to have some property for sale (and with "good parking" as a selling point, no less).

Also, Minhas is cheerfully lying to you about where they operate from, and their beer is terrible. There's that, too.

I'm sorry, no, I'm the guy willing to believe in airships and even I can't buy that speedy rail connecting us to Minnesota is a viable answer to our problems. Besides, if our relationship with North Dakota is any indication, it would seem that harmonious cooperation with our immediate American neighbours is not exactly our strong point.

[One Evening In Winnipeg: Dear Neighbour Across the Back Lane...]Speaking of less than harmonious neighbours -- back-lane disturbances are no rare occurrence in this city, but being able to concretely identify the source of the problems can be both a blessing and a curse. It's probably for the best that the author of this piece didn't catch up to his cross-lane antagonists when he went outside; rather, let me correct that, it's definitely for the best that he didn't catch up to them when he went outside. That sort of thing never seems to end very well at all, in Winnipeg.

Situations like these are very rarely one-offs, so I suppose we may find out yet what his follow-up ends up being; I can't imagine a call to the police yielding much in the way of results, but then, I will admit to being something of a pessimist about matters of youth justice around here.

"Selanne is the oldest player to score 20 goals in the NHL since Johnny Bucyk did it for Boston in 1976-77. Selanne moved past Brendan Shanahan into sole possession of 12th place on the career goals list with 657. Selanne has 17 20-goal seasons, tying the Finn for fifth on the career list."

He's done okay for himself, basically. So if you might happen to feel like reminiscing about his earliest days in the league, here's a full YouTube transfer of that one everpresent yard sale VHS tape that covers the story of his rookie season.

Winnipeg's favourite blog two years running has once again extended into the world of physical availability, following up its book form with a jump onto hand-transferred pre-stretched autographed canvas. Sounds pretty neat, right? May as well drop into Warehouse Artworks next time you're in the Exchange, have yourself a look-see.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Great article! Thanks so much for finally saying how insane MPI is being. Every step in this new strategy is clearly a cash grab for MPI and it's sad that there are no other options but our single public insurance. The province is simply trying to make it more difficult to use any other ID than MPI issued. I recently had my license suspended and as I fell into the madness that is the rabbit hole of MPI, I soon realized how impossibly unorganized and inefficient this travisty of a company is.

One note howver, is that having the DOB at the bottom of the ID is actually a pretty clever move, as ID should be removed and handed to the person asking for it, rather than hidded in the depths of an ID slot.

About the Site

About the Author

James Hope Howard is a currently-job-hunting Librarian, a current affairs panelist on 101.5 UMFM's Winnipeg Internet Pundits, a competitive gaming stream commentator for Chip Damage, and the reigning five-time Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown champion of Winnipeg. Plus other duties as assigned.

He blogs in his spare time.

Views and opinions expressed on this site are his own and do not necessarily represent those of the institutions or outlets mentioned above.

Disclaimers

"Slurpee" is a registered trademark of 7-Eleven, Inc., a subsidiary of Seven & I Holdings Co. Ltd.; neither this site nor its writer are affiliated in any way with either entity. "Murder" is the unlawful killing of one human being by another, intentionally and with malicious premeditation; neither this site nor its writer are affiliated in any way with the act.

I may, from time to time, indulge in certain words that are considered profane or vulgar. Please be forewarned.

All MP3s posted on this page are provided for sample purposes and are intended to promote the purchase of their original album or source; please contact jameshowardresearch (at) yahoo.com to remove material that you would prefer not be shared.